Children are entertained and educated by playing with toys which they use to enact imaginary and real life scenes. Children also enjoy music such as "sing-along" songs which combine melodies with stories or educational information. Music also serves as an excellent means of bringing excitement and enthusiasm to the presentation of a story or lesson and effectively captures the attention and imagination of children. And children are also of course interested in books, in the presentation of graphic and textual information, as may be further enhanced by an accompanying sound track.
These three very common and effective entertainment and educational media for children have heretofore been combined or associated in various formats, such as audio cassette tapes which contain recorded readings or singing of stories or songs printed in an accompanying book, and toys which represent characters of a story in a book or on a tape. For audio cassette tapes or compact disks containing information related to a particular toy, there exists a need for keeping the tape or disk and the toy physically together such that the toy is available when the tape is played for the child's use and enjoyment. Furthermore, when the child is not listening to a cassette tape or disk, it must be put away to prevent it from becoming lost. Tapes or disks must also be put in a protective compartment to prevent damage. The prior art has dealt with this problem, primarily by providing plastic boxes which may be packaged with a book or toy. Another solution to this problem has been to include a concealed pocket or compartment in a toy for storing a cassette or compact disk, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,149. Such compartments completely shroud the cassette or disk from view such that one cannot easily determine which cassette has been stored in the compartment. In those instances where the information on the cassette relates to the toy, one cannot be certain that the correct cassette has been stored with the corresponding toy.